Attention to language: Novel MEG paradigm for registering involuntary language processing in the brain

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Attention to language: Novel MEG paradigm for registering involuntary language processing in the brain Yury Shtyrov1*, Marie Smith1, Rik Henson1, Ed Bullmore2, 3, Pradeep Nathan2, 3 and Friedemann Pulvermuller1 1 Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC), United Kingdom 2 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Clinical Unit Cambridge, United States 3 University of Cambridge, Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, United Kingdom Previous research indicated that, under explicit instructions to listen to spoken stimuli or in speech-oriented behavioural task, brain's responses to senseless pseudowords are larger than those to meaningful words; the reverse is true in non-attend conditions. These differential responses could be used as a tool to trace linguistic processes in the brain and their interaction with attention. However, as the previous studies relied on explicit instructions to attend or ignore the stimuli, a technique for automatic attention modulation (not dependent on explicit instruction) would be more advantageous, especially in cases where cooperation with instructions may not be guaranteed (neurological patients, children etc). We here present a novel paradigm in which the stimulus context automatically draws attention to speech. In a non-attend passive auditory oddball sequence, rare words and pseudowords were presented among frequent non-speech tones of variable frequency and length. The low percentage of spoken stimuli guarantees an involuntary attention switch to them. The speech stimuli, in turn, could be disambiguated as words or pseudowords only in their end, at the last phoneme, after the attention switch would have already occurred. Our results confirmed that this paradigm can indeed be used for automatic shift of attention to the spoken input. At 250-300 ms after the stimulus onset, a P3a-like ERF deflection was registered to spoken (but not tone) stimuli indicating involuntary attention shift. Later, at 100-150 ms after the word-pseudoword divergence point, we found a strong and robust effect, a larger oddball response to pseudowords than words, consistently with our earlier findings. The new paradigm may thus be an efficient way to test activation of language networks in the brain and their interaction with attention processes in an automatic and task-free fashion. Theoretical implications and possible clinical applications of the new paradigm will also be discussed. Conference: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Language Citation: Shtyrov Y, Smith M, Henson R, Bullmore E, Nathan P and Pulvermuller F (2010). Attention to language: Novel MEG paradigm for registering involuntary language processing in the brain. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00235 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 31 Mar 2010; Published Online: 31 Mar 2010. * Correspondence: Yury Shtyrov, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC), Cambridge, United Kingdom, yury.shtyrov@googlemail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Yury Shtyrov Marie Smith Rik Henson Ed Bullmore Pradeep Nathan Friedemann Pulvermuller Google Yury Shtyrov Marie Smith Rik Henson Ed Bullmore Pradeep Nathan Friedemann Pulvermuller Google Scholar Yury Shtyrov Marie Smith Rik Henson Ed Bullmore Pradeep Nathan Friedemann Pulvermuller PubMed Yury Shtyrov Marie Smith Rik Henson Ed Bullmore Pradeep Nathan Friedemann Pulvermuller Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.